Chico officials' salaries, plastic bag ban get the go-ahead

CHICO -- The Chico City Council established new, higher salary structures for its top five department heads and assistant city manager Tuesday as it prepares to start the city's restructuring.

Salary caps of $160,000 were set for the police and fire chiefs and new positions of director of administrative services, community development and public works. The assistant city manager salary is capped at $185,000, up from the $158,000 previously paid for the position.

Councilors approved the salaries 6-1, with Ann Schwab dissenting.

Schwab had taken issue with a lack of dollar figure comparisons presented in the initial staff report. More detailed figures were provided to the council Tuesday, following inquiries to City Manager Brian Nakamura by residents.

"If these questions had not been brought forward by a community member, that information would not have been provided to us as part of our decision making," she said. "I just have not seen the transparency in this process."

Part of Nakamura's reason for elevating the salary caps is because the new department heads will have greater responsibilities than those held by the previous directors. The salaries are maximums, not guarantees, he said.

"The duties and tasks that are going to be marshaled forward in the organization are going to be much different than what we have envisioned or relied on in the past," Nakamura said.

The new positions are most similar to those held by the finance director, building and development services director and general services director. In using those jobs as a comparison, Nakamura said the reduction from 10 department heads to five with the new salaries will result in $529,000 in annual savings.

Additional savings will be found as the restructuring trickles down through the city structure, he said.

Nakamura said he built the salary caps based off the city's needs, comparative cites and Chico's quality of life. The city's benefit package was also taken into consideration, as other comparisons became clear in the search process for a new assistant city manager.

"It's always easier to negotiate salaries than it is benefits," he said.

A new employee would come in under the new retirement structure but any existing employees would retain the existing structure, Nakamura said. He also stressed that changes to benefits would have other effects.

"Essentially what you have is a bubble situation. If you push in on one side, it's likely to pop out on the other," he said.

The City Council also voted 5-2 to move forward with an ordinance that bans double-handled single-use plastic bags in stores that sell food and meet certain size and sales criteria, effective Jan. 1.

The city attorney needed the clarification so she can complete the drafting of the ordinance and the environmental review can be completed.

The suggestion for the ban to be all-encompassing with regard to stores that sell food such as convenience stores and food marts was a suggestion by the California Grocers Association. Schwab said if the community wants to add in other kinds of retail at a future date, that can be considered.

In other business, the council voted 6-1 with Schwab dissenting to approve a recommendation to grant liquor licenses to BevMo!

Schwab said she was opposed to granting the licenses in the wake of ongoing discussions about alcohol abuse in Chico and the impacts it has on the police department's workload, the community's reputation and alcohol-related deaths.

"I just don't know if this is necessary for us to go forward with a liquor supermarket at this time when we are looking at ways we can combat this alcohol abuse problem," she said.

Other councilors said the issue is not availability of alcohol but the culture of alcohol and noted that most alcohol-related issues are concentrated in the south campus area, not where BevMo! is locating. They also applauded BevMo!'s efforts to be a responsible retailer, and Councilor Sean Morgan said it's the kind of responsibility he would like to see among other Chico alcohol providers.